Original: Color, the maker of a notoriously failed photo-sharing app and one of the most controversial startups of this decade, is going to wind down its business and return what money it has left to shareholders, Ricardo Bilton at VentureBeat reports.

Bilton got a copy of an email Color management sent to employees that says, "As you may or may not have heard, Color is going through a number of changes. Last week, the Board and major shareholders voted to wind down the company."

But Color's megafunding fit a long-established Silicon Valley pattern where investors have been willing to bet large amounts on entrepreneurs with track records of success. Color CEO Bill Nguyen had previously launched a music startup, Lala, and sold it to Apple—the kind of win that stokes venture capitalists' confidence.

In May, Nguyen said that Color had "five to six years" of "runway," or funds to operate the company, left. That suggests that the majority of the money it raised was still in the bank, meaning the investment won't be a total writeoff.